The abrupt end of the Boston Breakers brought out a range of emotions among players, including sadness and anger. But mostly there was an overwhelming feeling of uncertainty.
“It was definitely sad because I built such good relationships there. So coming to the realization that it wasn’t going to be a team anymore and I wasn’t going to be seeing those people on a daily basis was really sad,” said former Boston midfielder Rose Lavelle, now with the Washington Spirit. “But then I was worried, because nobody really knew how it was going to work out for us.”
The Breakers were disbanded with a dispersal draft, with most players landing on other National Women’s Soccer League teams. The team has now started giving refunds to season tickets holders. And, seven weeks into the league’s season, the displaced players are acclimating to their post-Boston careers.
It was a sad end to one of the pioneering teams in women’s professional soccer.
… Because of Messi’s general disinterest in all business matters, as well as his demanding schedule with Barcelona and Argentina (through May 14, Messi had scored 34 goals in 35 La Liga games this season), his advisers generally try to schedule no more than one morning a month with time dedicated to promotion or media. During one such day in March, I ask a person close to Messi if this type of scheduling is effective for a player in such demand. “It is the only way he will do it,” the person says through a tight smile.
This morning has been tricky. Adidas has taken over a small stadium just outside Barcelona to work with its biggest client, and the setup is elaborate: tents, lights, wardrobe, makeup, the works. Hours before Messi jumps on that box — hours before he even arrives — lighting techs linger over Iberico ham at the breakfast table while men carrying cameras of varying sizes shimmy past security guards both real and fake. (One of the spots being filmed apparently involves a police chase.)
The mood is relaxed enough until Messi lands on-site; then the pressure ratchets up. Everything is catered to make this easy for Messi — there is a tent of his own to relax in and even a body double (really more of a freaky doppelganger) who has the same shaggy facial hair and ornate tattoos as Messi, bouncing around to help stage shots before the actual Messi steps in for filming. Yet everyone knows that Messi’s tolerance is short.
… When he’s a bit off, he loses badly, spraying wild shots way out of bounds. When his bravery and precision align, he can beat anyone on the tour.
In the third set tiebreak against Nadal, Shapovalov was exhausted and in pain. “I thought, Hey, just remember you can be out here with these guys, you can’t win yet, but you can fight, you can push them until the end. On match point, I thought, screw it, let me go for the down-the-line and see what happens. If I make it, I’ll win. If I don’t, I’ll probably lose the match.” Shapovalov made it, notching the biggest win of his young career. “I blacked out after that. The stadium was so loud. My ears almost popped. It was the loudest thing I’ve ever heard in any sport event ever.”
Shapovalov’s game is a high-wire act, risky and elegant. Every swing of his racket is full, unchecked. He hits his lefty, one-handed backhand so hard that it launches his feet off the ground. He flies. He’s fast and chases down every ball with the ferocious energy reminiscent of a young Nadal. But the way he skips across the court, skimming the surface, seeking out every offensive opportunity, is a style of play clearly inspired by his favorite player, Federer.
Loughborough University research into parenting in sport has resulted in the nationwide roll-out of a youth tennis parent education and support initiative.
Parenting a talented young tennis player can be complex and challenging, and the pressures faced by families can be difficult to manage.
To understand these pressures Professor Chris Harwood and Dr Sam Thrower from the University’s School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences conducted investigations into the experiences and needs of tennis parents within Great Britain.
Their published findings have led to the development of resources and workshops that aim to help grass roots tennis parents and children gain a positive and confidence building experience from their participation in the sport.
… Bercovici argues that most of these declines can be delayed or even reversed through regular intense exercise, and he points to research showing that some professional athletes actually live longer on average than the rest of us. For instance, Tour de France cyclists have an average life span that’s eight years longer than that of mere mortals. Studies show that elite athletes in their fifties and sixties often have a decades-younger “biological age,” determined by how well their body functions.
Bercovici theorizes that aging elite athletes know something the rest of us don’t and use tools most of us haven’t heard of yet, like brain-stimulating headsets that enhance motor skills or DNA testing to predict injuries. A study cited in the book found a 17-year lag between the pioneering of a medical innovation and the introduction of that innovation to the general population. “Peering into the world of elite athletes is literally a glimpse into the future the rest of us will soon be living in,” Bercovici writes. He meets established research and fringe science with equal parts skepticism and fascination but generally withholds judgment of each practice until the end of the book.
… I spent a lot of time in my original piece talking about how small errors in the predictions could have outsized effects. I also talked about how the messaging didn’t line up with what was needed in American soccer. It was weird to have these criticisms, criticisms that I had thought long and hard about, fall by the way-side as the conversation progressed. And then I realized that my framework for understanding this was off. I had thought that Bio-Banding was a method of dividing kids up to somehow produce slightly more elite players, even at the cost of other kids. But it’s not really a way of splitting kids into more groups. It’s about encouraging clubs to consider what kids need. I don’t know if James realized this or not, but what I heard while talking to him wasn’t about a scientifically-based method for marginally improving the outcomes in youth development. Not really. What I heard was culture change. Significant and foundational culture change.
My criticisms didn’t work because all of them were based on a vision of a rigid algorithmic process. But Bio-Banding is really supposed to be about encouraging flexibility. When I realized this, I asked exactly that. Is Bio-Banding about flexibility? And James said yes. And, to me, this was confirmation that this was really about this bigger vision on culture change.
I originally saw Bio-Banding as this scientifically-based method in order to categorize kids in order to give them specialized training. But what I got from Bunce was that it was more important to get coaches and administration to put kids in positions where they get many experiences instead of just specialized ones. It encourages clubs to think much more about how the individual kids are doing and less about the success of the teams they are on.
Blood lactate testing is typically performed at swimmers at National competitions and sometimes during practice. Most often at meets, blood is drawn from the ear, yet blood lactate samples are commonly taken from the fingertip in practice.
It is believed that blood circulating in the body contains the same blood lactate, but this has yet to be determined. However, these sites are used interchangeably in a meet to determine how to warm down volumes and practice to determine effort levels.
The aim of this study was to determine accuracy between the fingertip and earlobe for measures of blood lactate to examine whether these sample sites may be used interchangeably.
In the current study we investigated the effects of resisted sprint training on sprinting performance and underlying mechanical parameters (force-velocity-power profile) based on two different training protocols: (i) loads that represented maximum power output (Lopt) and a 50% decrease in maximum unresisted sprinting velocity and (ii) lighter loads that represented a 10% decrease in maximum unresisted sprinting velocity, as drawn from previous research (L10). Methods
Soccer [n = 15 male] and rugby [n = 21; 9 male and 12 female] club-level athletes were individually assessed for horizontal force-velocity and load-velocity profiles using a battery of resisted sprints, sled or robotic resistance respectively. Athletes then performed a 12-session resisted (10 × 20-m; and pre- post-profiling) sprint training intervention following the L10 or Lopt protocol. Results
Both L10 and Lopt training protocols had minor effects on sprinting performance (average of -1.4 to -2.3% split-times respectively), and provided trivial, small and unclear changes in mechanical sprinting parameters. Unexpectedly, Lopt impacted velocity dominant variables to a greater degree than L10 (trivial benefit in maximum velocity; small increase in slope of the force-velocity relationship), while L10 improved force and power dominant metrics (trivial benefit in maximal power; small benefit in maximal effectiveness of ground force orientation). Conclusions
Both resisted-sprint training protocols were likely to improve performance after a short training intervention in already sprint trained athletes. However, widely varied individualised results indicated that adaptations may be dependent on pre-training force-velocity characteristics.
Research and discussions about injury rates and their prevention in elite football is one of the hottest topics in the medical and sport science literature. Over the past years, there has been an explosion of the number of publications, including surveys,1 observational, retrospective or prospective2 studies, training interventions and various types of expert opinions and commentaries.3 This array of information are likely useful to improve our understanding of what the best practices may be, and in turn, increase our ability to better prepare, manage and treat players. However, a recent survey has shown that 83% of UEFA clubs do not follow evidenced-based prevention programs.1 It was also shown that hamstring injuries kept increasing over the last 13 years.2 Taken together, those two papers may suggest that the majority of elite club practitioners likely disregard research findings1 and may therefore be the one to be blamed for those increased injury rates.2
Making supporting staff and coaches responsible for those injuries is easy, especially when considering their perceived typical personality traits (i.e., so-called Type 2,4 high egos and little open-mindedness and willingness and learn – “why could they be bothered applying the new study findings?”). While this may be true sometimes, the reality is that elite club practitioners are rather often in the frontline with new treatment options and training programs.
I’ve recently had the pleasure of peer-reviewing a few very well-written and carried out studies investigating duration requirements for stabilization preceding HRV recordings by different research groups. I look forward to seeing the published versions as the quality of the papers was very high.
In reviewing these papers it prompted me to reconsider what we all have been using as the criterion period. My colleagues and I have published 5 papers using a 5-min R-R sample preceded by a 5-min ‘stabilization’ period (10 min total duration) as the criterion (as has other groups), which is in line with traditional procedures. But I think we failed to address an important limitation of these procedures…
Yes, to a certain extend. There is plenty of documentation in peer review journals about DOMS after hard exercise, but it still isn’t correctly understood what drives the phenomena. The theory is that it is a combination of inflammatory response and muscle fiber disruption. The inflammatory response follows damage to the tissues after a hard training session, and it involves an increase in swelling to osmotic pressure – this is what causes the pain. Compression garments may well reduce this swelling, thus reducing the pain and the response by using the veinous return system.
CK or creatine kinase is a biomarker for damage to the muscles and compression garments, or other compression technologies have been shown to be very effective in decreasing the concentration of CK, resulting in less being released into the blood (3). This leads to better waste product removal and faster muscle tissue repair.
FIFA will permit in-game player tracking analysis and communication for the first time during this summer’s World Cup.
A pair of optical tracking cameras will log positional data for every player and the ball. That data and the video will be accessible to every team via small handheld technologies. FIFA is allotting one tablet to an analyst sitting in an overhead booth and one coach on field level.
The analyst will have access to a tactical application enabling telestrator drawings overlaid on the video feed. Still images with diagrams can be sent over the network for in-match adjustments.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and AEG President and CEO Dan Beckerman discuss hockey rink technology that pulls moisture from the air to create a more sustainable skating surface.
Vicis is bringing its high-tech helmet technology from the playing field to the battlefield.
The Seattle startup today announced a contract with the U.S. Army to improve the safety of Army and Marine Corps combat helmets.
Vicis spun out of the University of Washington in 2014 and has developed a football helmet used by players across the NFL, NCAA, and high school levels.
To design the most technologically advanced World Cup ball in history, Adidas had to go back to a time when TV transmissions were mostly in black and white, soccer balls were made from heavy, unforgiving leather and chips were something you put in cookies, not sports equipment.
The first time a World Cup game was played with an Adidas ball was 1970. The black and white pentagon panels of that product, the Telstar Elust, became synonymous with the sport.
Roland Rommler’s job as Adidas’ category director for global football hardware was to help recreate that ball for this summer’s tournament in Russia, while adding technological advances that would have qualified as science fiction a half century ago.
“All of our all-field products – each jersey, each boot — they all take an authentic inspiration,” Rommler said. “From a brand perspective, we want to bring back the most authentic and most iconic product on the field of play, but with a modern twist.”
University of California-San Diego, Jacobs School of Engineering from
… Enter a needleless glucose monitor dubbed the tattoo sensor, which measures insulin levels through sweat on the skin. Developed by UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering researchers and led by UC San Diego Center for Wearable Sensors Director Joseph Wang and SAIC Endowed Chair of Engineering, and co-director, Patrick Mercier, the team is developing a glucose monitoring patch without the prick.
“Just like a kid’s temporary tattoo, you apply it on the arm, dab with water and remove the back paper,” said Mercier, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “Our tattoo, however, is printed with material containing two electrodes that apply a small amount of electrical current. This forces glucose molecules that reside below the skin to rise to the surface, allowing us to measure blood sugar. It’s safe and you can’t really feel it.”
The NHL is embedding technology into its pucks that will allow it to track movement on the ice at a rate of roughly 200 times a second, according to David Lehanski, the NHL’s senior vice president of business development and global partnerships.
The smart puck will aid in the league’s development of live data, which the NHL hopes to deploy across the league in a number of ways, ultimately enhancing the fan and broadcast experience, according to Lehanski, who spoke Monday at SAP’s inaugural North American Sports Forum.
Under normal circumstances, Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham might have called it a season on Christmas night, at the moment he suffered his high ankle sprain against the Oakland Raiders. But these were no normal circumstances.
The Eagles not only made the playoffs for the first time in four years, but were the No. 1 seed in the NFC and had plans on extending their run into February. Graham, the team’s sack leader, was a most critical component. So he went to visit a specialist in North Carolina, and once it was was determined that he had no ligament damage, he set his sights on the postseason. He played in all three of Philadelphia’s playoff games, and came up with the game-sealing strip-sack of Tom Brady late in Super Bowl LII to secure the franchise’s first-ever Lombardi Trophy. One of the most important plays in team history, turns out, was executed on one good leg.
The ankle did not heal as Graham had hoped on its own, so on May 1, Graham underwent surgery to help speed up the process, according to sources. He is currently in a protective boot and will be sidelined for some of the Eagles’ spring/summer work. The goal is to be ready for training camp.
Brandon Snyder’s junior season as an Iowa football player was more trying than people knew, marked by not two, but three surgical procedures on his left knee, his father, Tim, told the Register this month.
Snyder played in only one game in 2017 after starting at free safety for the Hawkeyes throughout 2016. The trouble began when he suffered a torn ACL during spring practices, with some speculation that it would cost him the entire season.
Snyder pushed ahead with his rehabilitation and was able to return for Iowa’s sixth game, against Illinois. He thrilled the Kinnick Stadium crowd by bringing back an interception 89 yards for a touchdown in that 45-16 victory.
But what fans didn’t know was Snyder had suffered a partial tear in his left knee earlier that game. Tim Snyder winced when he saw the play happen.
For Peruvians, the excitement should be almost unbearable. Thirty-six years after their last World Cup, their team has finally qualified for another.
Instead, the tournament is shrouded in controversy before it’s even begun. Peru’s star player and captain, Paolo Guerrero, looks set to miss out on the competition after a six-month drug ban he had already served was last week extended to 14 months. To add to the striker’s pain, the punishment handed to him by the Court of Arbitration for Sport far outweighs his crime.
The issue first arose after a qualifier against Argentina last year, in which Peru secured a vital 0-0 draw. Yet after Guerrero tested positive for benzoylecgonine, the main metabolite of cocaine, FIFA handed him a one-year ban which would have ruled him out of the World Cup.
He wasn’t yet old enough to drive, but even at 14, Jaylin Lindsey knew he needed to find a new road if he wanted to reach his full potential as a soccer player.
It was 2014, and Lindsey was receiving regular call-ups to the US Under-14 national team. The camp invites were nice, but Lindsey wasn’t getting the feedback he wanted from national team coaches. He had plenty of potential, but it was taking him the first few days of each camp to get up to speed with teammates like Tim Weah, Josh Sargent, Andrew Carleton and Chris Durkin. The staff worried that he wasn’t at a competitive enough club back home.
Desperate to not fall behind, Lindsey decided to take control of his development path. He started shopping around for academies, searching for a team that could accelerate his growth and put him on a road to the pros. After some research, he decided he wanted to join Sporting Kansas City.
The only problem? He lived in Charlotte, N.C., nearly 1,000 miles from Children’s Mercy Park.
… I ran James’s feat past some noted neuroscientists to see whether it impressed them as much as it did the rest of us. “Fascinating,” said Jocelyn Faubert, research chair in visual perception at the University of Montreal. “Quite beautiful really,” said Andre Fenton, professor of neuroscience at New York University. “It’s remarkable,” said Zach Hambrick, a cognition-performance expert at Michigan State. “But not surprising.”
It’s not surprising because researchers are seeing an ever more articulate connection between cognitive science and human performance.
“This is one of the bedrock findings in research on human expertise: that experts have superior memory for information within their domain,” Hambrick said.
… A merry band of castoffs and rejects — Golden Misfits, they call themselves — populate the roster crafted by General Manager George McPhee and molded by Coach Gerard Gallant into a bona fide dynamo — expansion franchise, shmexpansion franchise. They swept Los Angeles, blitzed San Jose and rolled Winnipeg, which finished with the N.H.L.’s second-best record.
There is not one overarching reason for Vegas’s success, but several, all entwined: the right players, the right coaches and a grieving city eager to embrace a new sport and a winner.
… Penn State pays an unspecified analytics company to break down the game in a way Franklin and his staff can’t. As Franklin explained, the service sends out a report every Sunday with a dozen or so examples from NFL and college games of “situations where they feel like they could have been handled differently.” A lot of times, it’s fourth-down decisions.
“The reality is, if it’s 4th-and-1, I don’t care if it’s on (your own 12-yard line), the analytics companies say you should go for it,” Franklin said. “The analytics companies are going to say to go for it on every single one of them.”
“If the analytics back up what my gut is telling me, it makes me feel good. I’m like, ‘OK, I’m on the right path.’ My gut feels that way, the staff is telling me that, and the analytics say that we’re right,” Franklin continued. “And then you have the opposite time, when your gut is telling you one thing and the analytics tell you another, and it challenges you. You may still come to the same conclusion, but it forces dialogue. It forces you to have a discussion.”
When football recruits visit Virginia, they almost always leave with a business card in their pocket. It belongs to U.Va.’s new athletics director, Carla Williams.
Since being hired, Williams has made time in her schedule to meet with recruits and their families, in all sports, who come to campus considering Virginia.
“She’s standing there and talking to the moms of these young men, basically saying that they can do anything. And that she’s an example,” football coach Bronco Mendenhall said during an interview last week. “Right at the beginning, Carla said, ‘I’m here to help, and I love being involved in recruiting. Use me.’”
Mendenhall, heading into his third season rebuilding the Cavaliers’ program, knew he needed help from his new boss, and it went beyond her pitching in during recruiting visits. What Mendenhall really needed was financial support, something he and Williams agreed was lacking for his sport to compete in the ACC.
The Denver Broncos brought in former Philadelphia 76ers general manager Sam Hinkie to assist with analytics advice, according to Nicki Jhabvala of The Athletic.
Hinkie met with general manager John Elway, director of football analytics Mitch Tanney, analyst Scott Flaska and other broncos pro and college scouts at the Broncos’ headquarters on Thursday.
Jhabvala reports the purpose of the meeting was to determine “how to best use the influx of data they’ve received over the years to benefit them in player evaluation, in-game situations, salary cap and contract decisions, and training and rehab matters.”
SB Nation, Beyond the Boxscore blog, Jim Turvey from
There’s a prevalent thought among many baseball fans – the type of fan who is most likely to be reading a website like Beyond the Box Score, in particular – that, to turn a phrase: the war on WAR is over. And the good guys won.
First, the Cubs won and Theo Epstein, with his analytical-loving mind, broke his second historic curse of his young career thanks to the Cubs title in 2016. Then the Astros, derided by all just a few years back – and the team that took baseball’s newest ideals to their furthest extremes – broke a lengthy title drought of their own by winning their franchise’s first World Series the very next season. Heck, even the Phillies – the most infamous dinosaurs from the era in which the war on WAR was waged – hired a whole analytical department, and they now have a new manager who is more new-school than Joe Maddon.
Just look at some of the headlines that have popped up over the past few years. The Wall Street Journal had a piece entitled: “The War on Bunting Is Over: The Nerds Are Victorious.” Grantland had a post-Cubs piece penned by Rany Jazayerli called: “The Curios Have Won,” which started with the sentence: “The Great Analytics War ended at 48 minutes after midnight on November 3, 2016. The terms were unconditional surrender.”